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How do you open stories? The best way possible! PUNCH! If your first line doesn't tell the reader something very big, dire, funny, awesome or wordplay-ish, then what is there to keep someone reading. I feel, very adamantly, that the very first line must... have... WHAM! It needs a hook, and what better way to hook that by making it dire. Hell, put some stakes right in the first line if you must.

I remember my favorite opening sentence I ever wrote: It rained in blood! WHAM! I loved it so that in my current Dust to Deceit Remake, that line is still there and unaltered.

Suddenly, audiences are interested because something dire is happening and they wonder what will happen. You've hooked them... at least, that's what I want to do. Doesn't always work though... hmm.

Can cursing get in the way of the atmosphere in the story?

I'm not too sure. It depends on what the swearword means. After all, what is a swear word if not but a word that has a clearly defined meaning that, in and of itself is considered taboo, but equally taboo words are not bleeped out. I can have clear disdain for racially inclined words as they have a hateful connotation. But the F word just means the act of baby making... and who can call that bad unless you accidentally make the baby... what were we talking about again?

I guess overuse of the same swearword CAN get repetitive, but it's the Said paradox where showing a limited vocabulary can ALWAYS be boring if people only respond with 'said.'

Well, I had a giant post with answers to some past questions almost all the way done, and then of course I went to change tabs and accidentally hit my school e-mail button instead. So I guess I'll just jump back in here--about the only really significant thing I wanted to say anyway was to tell Dragonfree that omg I totally remember that kadabra 'fic. It had to do with you being angry about the bumping rules in a spriting forum somewhere, didn't it? (From the same era, I also remember The Trainer With No Dreams, or whatever it was called... too bad you never decided to continue that; it could have been cool!)

Anyway.

Can cursing get in the way of the atmosphere in the story?

Heh, wow, I didn't actually realize so many people were turned off by swearing. (...uh-oh.) In any case, it's pretty much been stated--the kind of tone you're trying to convey is going to determine, to an extent, how much swearing is likely to go on. It's entirely possible to have a very gritty, dramatic setting without much cursing if you'd like, though. The effect is obviously that the more of it you have, the less any particular instance of cursing is going to have an impact. If you have a whole lot of "****s" flying around, they're just going to kind of wash out to a kind of background noise, for the people who aren't turned off by them and stop reading in the first place, I guess. On the other hand, as other people have noted, the very uncharacteristic curse from a character can have a huge impact. One of my high school teachers went on a long rant about how the most important line of dialogue in A Separate Peace is one in which a character who previously had a serious perfect-guy image going on has an accident and ends up not showing any emotion over it until finally he lets out this one explosive curse, which of course shows that his perfect image has come crashing down around his ears and he's become a broken person, etc etc. The class then proceeded to have no clue what she was talking about, and after some confusion it was discovered that the "crucial line" had in fact been censored out of our school-issued editions of the novel.

It's also worth it to note that, like most other elements of dark 'fics, you really have to be careful that you're not going too far with the cursing. Like, a "gritty" person in real life might swear pretty frequently, but if you have sentences with multiple f-bombs cropping up a great deal, for example, it's going to start coming across as laughable rather than "hardcore", or as if the character is trying too hard. "Holy ** on a ** sandwich with ** on top," and all that. A little bit of creative swearing can be great comedy, I think--just make sure I'm not snickering over something you were intending to be serious!

Does age really matter how well you write? How did you start out when you first started writing?

Not age in itself, but statistically, younger authors are generally less experienced and less experienced authors are generally worse at writing than more experienced ones, which creates something of a correlation. It's not a perfect correlation, though - writing or aspects of writing can come more naturally to some people than others, so they may get the hang of it before somebody who has more experience, and some people start young and thus have more experience when they get older than people who start older.

If you're young and feel like your writing isn't as good as other people's, it may be because of your lack of experience, or it may just be something that doesn't come as naturally to you, but the answer to that is always just writing more and getting more experience - you should never worry about whether other writers are better than you when they were your age or had your amount of experience.

Either way, I started out writing hilariously awfully. When I was describing my first story in my first post here, there wasn't much paraphrasing. There was literally a page that went "But soon it became apparent that a rock had gotten stuck in Faxi's eye! But soon it fell out." Meanwhile, my first Pokémon fanfic contained a lengthy explanation of why my ridiculous legendary bird had no weaknesses, followed by a realization that oh wait actually it did. And battles that consisted of the Pokémon making their cries at one another until the narration declared that one of them had fainted.

How do you open stories?

Usually the opening is one of the first things to come to me about a story, so it's not that I consciously go about opening my stories in some particular way. Generally I've started by introducing a character and the general theme of the story, I guess, but that's about as generic as you can get.

Can cursing get in the way of the atmosphere in the story?

Any element of tone can get in the way of atmosphere when misapplied, but that depends on what the atmosphere you're actually going for was in the first place. If you're going for something fairly gritty and realistic, and the story happens to have characters who would swear frequently, then by all means have them do so - but if they start doing it to an unrealistic degree, then that doesn't work in your realistic atmosphere. On the other hand, if you're going for a crass comedy kind of thing, then swearing can be pushed to ridiculousness and still work fine in that atmosphere (which isn't to say it's automatically funny or whatever, just that it wouldn't be out of place). And conversely, if you're writing something similar in tone to something like the Pokémon anime, a lot of swearing would probably be out of place. Most of this is common sense.

I don't think swearing in itself is ever a problem - only when it clashes with the story it's in or the characters whose mouths it comes out of. It's your choice as an author whether you want to include it in your work, of course, but I don't think "Thing X that's common in real life shouldn't be in fiction" is ever a justifiable statement to make.

Originally Posted by Negrek

about the only really significant thing I wanted to say anyway was to tell Dragonfree that omg I totally remember that kadabra 'fic. It had to do with you being angry about the bumping rules in a spriting forum somewhere, didn't it?

Not bumping - they had a rule that every post had to be more than three words and closed my sprite thread because I posted some sprites without also including comments of four words or more along with them. For some reason I felt like being argumentative about this, so I complained and asked if they really thought a post adding artwork to an art thread is spam if it's accompanied by a message like "Gold version Misdreavus", but not when accompanied by, say, "This is a Gold version Misdreavus". The mods answered basically "Yeah, because the rule says posts have to be more than three words." So I ragequit and wrote that.

Originally Posted by Negrek

(From the same era, I also remember The Trainer With No Dreams, or whatever it was called... too bad you never decided to continue that; it could have been cool!)

I might! Someday. Maybe. I had some kind of neat ideas for it and if I were to write another trainer fic, picking up on that would currently be the main candidate, but meanwhile I have all this finishing TQftL/Morphic rewrite/Morphic sequel/inevitable Morphic sequel rewrite/more TQftL rewriting/DAVE AND MIA DISCUSS EVERYTHING to do.

Last edited by Dragonfree; 5th March 2013 at 9:38 PM.

Chapter 65: Three Dragons
The story of an ordinary boy on an impossible quest in a world that isn't as black and white as he always thought it was.(rough draft of the remaining chapters finished for NaNoWriMo; to be edited and posted)

Morphic(completed, plus silly extras)
A few scientists get drunk and start fiddling with gene splicing. Ten years later, they're taking care of eight half-Pokémon kids, each freakier than the next, while a religious fanatic plots to murder them all.

I find myself wanting to be back int this club. I didn't post much in the last thread; however, I find myself finally getting much more involved in my writing. I been working on my own twist of PMD-meets-real-world fic, and I just recently got my second chapter up. While I don't plan on becoming a full time writer in the future, I do have a desire to eventually write an original fantasy-adventure novel.

I think about the openings a lot, and I mean it. You have to have a good opening. It doesn't matter if the end of your story isn't all that great, your opening should be fantastic. It's part of your hook, along with your title. So spend enough time on your opening, and I don't just mean the opening of the first chapter/prologue, I mean every damn chapter. Of course, you don't need to think those out that much, but they all matter.

The point isn't 'spend fifteen minutes on a perfect opening and then let the rest of the story go to hell'. It's 'make a good opening and don't let your reader down on the rest of it'.

Can cursing get in the way of the atmosphere in the story?

As with a lot of subjects, this is completely relative. It depends on the type of story, and what rating it has and such. You can't come into an R-rated story expecting people to say 'oh gosh' and 'holy cow'. (Well, you can, but they probably won't.) Similarly, don't expect people to drop F-bombs in a G-rated fic either. But yeah - you can find anything anywhere.

Back on topic, it depends on what you want the atmosphere to be. If you're basing a fic on the anime and have them swear a lot ... yeah, it's uncharacteristic, but given the right setting, it could work. If you have Ash in an AU as a 25-year-old murder suspect, with the fic set in the slums of Viridian, then you could work in the occasional swear or so. No one would complain, because if you're trying to set a darker tone, it would fit right in. So in short, using swearing depends on the atmosphere you're trying to set. People above me have said it much better, though.

And, on the subject of cursing, stuff like 'Holy Arceus!' and 'what the Latios?' - that doesn't count IMO. I don't like it. It sounds like they're trying too hard to self-censor and sound all cute and Pokemon worship-y at the same time, and most of the time, it's not done all that well. For those who do this, I'm not saying you should stop this (this is all my opinion only), but here's a tip, free of charge: don't try to mix up 'Pokeswearing' and swearing IRL. It. Doesn't. Work.

Wait a minute. Isn't the whole point of giving a tip is that it's free of charge? But it's actually an extra charge ...

I find it odd that nobody has given out a challenge yet! I'd love to give out/particpate in one, so I'll be asking a few questions. Anybody who knows the answers please reply.

~ Any member can give out a challenge, right? And can those who give the challenge participate?
~ What exactly do we give as the subject/topic? Just a short prompt like 'midlife crisis', or a slightly more elaborate one, such as 'a Gym Leader is going through a midlife crisis after meeting a mysterious young challenger'?
~ What's the recommended word range? Drabble length (1000 words or less)? About 4000-5000 words? Or even longer?

Evolutions have been portrayed many ways in the Pokemon Franchise. In the games, it's nothing but a growth of level, which is the evolution into a new form, sometimes learning a move. However, the results of evolution aren't immediate. For example, a Lv. 22 Machop and a Lv. 23 Machoke would have little differences. This is shown to prevent evolutions from becoming to OP. In the anime, it's a completely different story. Anime portrays evolution as a 'max potion' and therefore Ash's *x pokemon* managed to defeat *y's pokemon*. It is a recurring scene in the anime. However, there are also times when evolution =/= good. For example, Ash's Turtwig was severely hindered by its weight after it evolved into a Grotle.

So what do you think of "evolutions"? How do you portray them? Are they immediate, or can it be something hindering?

I personally disagree with the way how evolution is portrayed in the anime. It's an uncreative way to finish off a battle, sometimes. However, other times, I find it to be especially DEM. I don't mind mid-battle evolutions actually, and if the foe still puts up a good fight after evolution, I wouldn't mind. However, sometimes I feel like X Pokemon evolved! Now, use Z move, instant sweep chain! Personally, I find evolution to be a new form, a new shape, so I would portray it as something to work on. However, when there's not much different (eg. Cyndaquil > Quilava), I don't see the need to put in a chapter or a scene or two to show that a Pokemon is unused to the new shape. I also enjoy disobedience through evolution. This spices up story, and I'm planning of incorporating one soon.

However, the results of evolution aren't immediate. For example, a Lv. 22 Machop and a Lv. 23 Machoke would have little differences. For example, a Lv. 22 Machop and a Lv. 23 Machoke would have little differences. This is shown to prevent evolutions from becoming to OP.

Uh, what? The results of evolution in the games are as "immediate" as they can get - there is no difference between a level 50 Machoke that's just evolved and a level 50 Machoke that evolved at level 28 (it doesn't evolve until then), all else being equal. The stats are updated immediately upon evolution to whatever the stat formula says the evolution's stats should be at that level with those IVs/EVs/nature. The game doesn't keep track of when the Pokémon evolved at all, much less try to compensate for overpoweredness somehow by making it weaker immediately after evolution.

Anyway...

What are your takes on evolutions? What do they do?

In the QftL-verse, evolution actually generally happens in the middle of a battle, because it's essentially triggered by the Pokémon version of adrenalin (once the Pokémon has grown to the strength and maturity to be able to handle it). It doesn't replenish their energy, though, and actually takes a bit out of them, so I've had a Pokémon evolve only to faint immediately afterwards, for instance (and another who purposefully overworked herself in an attempt to evolve early, only to be too weak to actually go through with the evolution by the time she'd managed to trigger it).

As for whether it can be hindering, it just depends on the circumstances - if something about the Pokémon's pre-evolved form is more suited to the battle (or whatever other situation) at hand than the evolved form, then evolving won't be such a good idea. So your Dragonair evolving into Dragonite might be generally a good thing, but if you're in the middle of battling an Ice-type, say hello to your shiny new double weakness. Your anime example works on a similar basis - in some situations it's good to be nimble, and if you evolve to become less nimble, then that's not going to be convenient. Strategies can also induce this - if your whole strategy revolves around being nimble, then immediately after evolving into something less nimble, you're probably going to be at a severe disadvantage while you figure out a new strategy.

Chapter 65: Three Dragons
The story of an ordinary boy on an impossible quest in a world that isn't as black and white as he always thought it was.(rough draft of the remaining chapters finished for NaNoWriMo; to be edited and posted)

Morphic(completed, plus silly extras)
A few scientists get drunk and start fiddling with gene splicing. Ten years later, they're taking care of eight half-Pokémon kids, each freakier than the next, while a religious fanatic plots to murder them all.

I, um, just realized this existed. And I kind of want to be a part of it. So, I shall now begin the elaborate initiation ritual...

I like writing. I mean, I do it for the sheer pleasure of it. Honestly, I could go on for paragraphs about what I like about it, and sound just like every other writer does when they talk about what they do. So, the reason I like writing is because I derive happiness from it, and it's an enjoyable way for me to pass the time.

Most of you here probably know me as the guy who lurks around the Author's Cafe, or the OP for the Review Game. Or maybe as the architect behind the Journeymen universe of fics that went up around the forum last year. The only fanfiction I wrote was League of Heroes, and then Hero's Path (they're linked in my signature if anyone cares). Mostly I used them as a sandbox for my original fiction (also linked on Fictionpress). Yeah, basically I used my pokemon fanfiction as a crossover universe for my characters in original fiction. It was actually a lot of fun. I'm only working on original fiction right now, but when I finish one of the two projects I'm currently working on, I want to start up on another, a story set many years after Hero's Path about the protagonist's daughter, drawing from one of my recent Nuzlocke runs.

Um, I guess that kind of wraps up my intro post. Sorry for interrupting the discussion and stuff. I'll be sure to actually contribute to it next time I post.

Uh, what? The results of evolution in the games are as "immediate" as they can get - there is no difference between a level 50 Machoke that's just evolved and a level 50 Machoke that evolved at level 28 (it doesn't evolve until then), all else being equal. The stats are updated immediately upon evolution to whatever the stat formula says the evolution's stats should be at that level with those IVs/EVs/nature. The game doesn't keep track of when the Pokémon evolved at all, much less try to compensate for overpoweredness somehow by making it weaker immediately after evolution.
.

What are your takes on evolutions? What do they do?
It's a good plot device, but I don't believe on having it as an ace in the hole like the anime does. In fact, while I haven't actually written one yet (besides The Gift), I dont think I'll ever have them evolve in battle. Or if they do, it wont have a significant impact on the outcome. Unless it causes them to learn a new move, like Combusken. But even then, to make it seem realistic, you couldn't have them master it in 2 seconds.

How many people have considered making an original story here?
I have tried at least 3 times, but I was never able to get past 30 pages or so. I don't what it is. Maybe I just suck at world building so I have leech of a fandom to get anywhere. -_-

How many people have considered of making an original story here?
I already have one, but I thought I'd ask.

I wouldn't post on here, the non-pokemon fic section always strikes me as a bit of a wasteland. I do a lot of original fiction, I just post it to Fictionpress instead. If you're looking for a readership, you're better off going to a site like that because odds are you won't get too much viewer traffic here.

Well, I haven't been here in forever. I did finally get some inspiration to start writing again, so expect me to start being more active here. Anyways, time to answer some questions given that I can answer.

Originally Posted by Meeker

How many people have considered of making an original story here?

I do have an original story series that I am working on, which is currently on Fictionpress. I got roughly three chapters in to it before I got busy and couldn't continue working on it. Looking back, that was when I was still generally new to writing fiction in general, and most of the wording choices make it look like it wasn't written properly. I do plan on reviving, and revising it one day.

Oh yeah, I have ideas for original stories. I have at least four story ideas, two of them which I can see looking better as a manga or graphic novel (I draw the characters to those two stories a lot anyway). Would I post them here, though? I don't think I will. Fictionpress maybe, but I do plan on taking up writing as a side-career, I just have to finish one of the stories. One is pretty much a supernatural romance, now that I think about it, but it's not with vampires or werewolves, but with trolls.

Yeah. That was years ago, though. I still have the main idea for it, but I haven't had a lot of interest in it for a long time. So that might never happen. I don't expect it to be popular either like with my other story ideas, but hey, as long as people have read them outside of the Internet, that's good enough for me. Just doing it for the art.

I don't really write fanfics, but I've absolutely adored writing for several years now. I often get stuck, and I criticize my work too much, but I really feel good getting my thoughts on paper. It can be a very relaxing and enjoyable activity. I also hope to be a novelist one day, so there's that too I guess.

How did you get an idea for a fic? Does it come to you? Or if you get inspired?

It just comes to me. Perhaps my ideas can be slightly fueled by real life occurrences, but the bulk of it is from my own imagination.

How do you portay romance correctly in your stories?

I'm a newbie writer and don't really see myself doing any romance-specific projects in the future. However, if I incorporate it as a subplot/snippet of a story, then my beliefs for how it'd be done would run parallel with Kutie Pie's.

What is your thoughts with 'tropes?'

They're quite handy for determining what's cliche and what's not. Or if you want to represent as many of them as possible in a parody or something. They can make you feel bad about your plot, but view it more as a guideline.

Does age really matter how well you write? How did you start out when you first started writing?

I'm about to seem self-centered in a moment. I promise I'm not. Please don't yell at me. :P

In almost all cases, it simply depends on the person. Mature adults can go either way, and the same goes for children and adolescents. For example, I'm twelve. Now, don't get me wrong: I'm terrible at writing. But I also excel for being at a level superior to my age. Nearly all the kids at my school (one of the most challenging ones, coincidentally) pale in comparison. With such a difference comes potential. While I'm an amateur now, you can say that I have the ability to rise far above that in a small amount of time if I had the freedom to focus upon it. This applies to other new writers at this forum as well.

In other words: Judge the person, not the number.

How do you open your stories?

Again, I'm still new to this, so I can't say I have much experience with it. But my golden rule is: make the opening unique and/or unexpected. Maybe it can be in the climax of a major battle, or simply a slice of life for a main character. If you can grab the readers' attention, then you're already halfway there. (For the opening, I mean.)

Can cursing get in the way of the atmosphere in the story?

It all has to do with the scene, character(s), and explicitives in question. Does the presence of the swear match up with what's going on? Does the character have the capacity to utter said word? If so, is it a precision F-bomb for a key event or a cluster F-bomb for a mild inconvenience? (Note that the last part does not count for a character that simply swears like a sailor because it is their nature. For example, if you have the tolerance to observe it, consider Dave from Dragonfree's Morphic.)

*rushes off, annoyed that I don't have time to respond to the newer topics*

~Fact of the Whenever~
Life gives you lemons because a large portion of humanity wasn't thankful for the grapes it already had. Please treat all fruit with respect.

Hey, guys! Sorry I've been so scarce lately. I'm taking a bit of a hiatus for awhile in that I'll be lurking and updating the first post (and throwing in comments to this thread, naturally), but real life has got me tangled up. I am also in talks to maybe get a co-owner, so there's that!

Yes. Go vote if you haven't already! That's an order from your mafia don!

(However, please do not discuss who you voted for until after the results are posted. That ruins the surprise~!)

Meantimes, responding to Deadly's very interesting post...

Originally Posted by Deadly.Braviary

I find it odd that nobody has given out a challenge yet! I'd love to give out/particpate in one, so I'll be asking a few questions. Anybody who knows the answers please reply.

~ Any member can give out a challenge, right? And can those who give the challenge participate?
~ What exactly do we give as the subject/topic? Just a short prompt like 'midlife crisis', or a slightly more elaborate one, such as 'a Gym Leader is going through a midlife crisis after meeting a mysterious young challenger'?
~ What's the recommended word range? Drabble length (1000 words or less)? About 4000-5000 words? Or even longer?

Ooh! A challenge!

1. Yes to both questions. It is totally kosher for anyone to give out challenges, and it's equally kosher to participate in the challenges you set. In fact, I'd recommend having you participate too, just to help coax people to join in. Of course, I wouldn't recommend participating if it involves judging fics, but chances are, those kinds of challenges might be a bit too complicated to put together. But tl;dr, yes.

2. The shorter the prompt, the easier it is for writers to interpret, meaning it's best if you keep it to "mid-life crisis," not "Gym Leader faces a mid-life crisis." You can also specify that it's a challenge wherein writers have to include Gym Leaders and the prompt mid-life crisis, but you want to word it in a way that makes it sound as open as possible, if that makes sense. (For example, including "Gym Leaders" and "mid-life crisis" as separate but equally required prompts allows a writer to interpret the full challenge as "Gym Leader faces a mid-life crisis" or "Gym Leader knows someone/is close to someone who is going through a mid-life crisis, and this is how they deal with it." If you can interpret the challenge multiple ways, you're good to go, in other words.)

3. This one I'm leaving up to everyone else. You could impose a minimum/maximum word count to add to the challenge, but you could also ask around to see what everyone would be comfortable with tackling. b)'')b

Looking forward to seeing what comes out of this~!

Also, all the folks who asked to join have been added to the roster. Hi there!

Ehh, I haven't been active much either, since I don't stay up after 10.

How many people have considered of making an original story here?

I written an original story that's posted on a different website. It was when I had a lot of problems though I wanted to write it since I loved doing it. Another one I did, but it was hard getting an idea of it, though I was inspired by a Flipnote series in Flipnote Hatena(if you know what it is) and other franchises as in Bleach and Final Fantasy. I may write one when I get older, but it'll be hard like the last one I did.

What are your takes on evolutions? What do they do?

Evolution isn't everything. ;p Sometimes, Pokemon like Pikachu and Scyther are still strong without evolution, though some need it to survive, like Wurmple and Caterpie. I am currently planning a story where a trainer catches an Electrike. And his Pokemon evolve FAST because of extreme training. Electrike didn't evolve because she gets easily tired and she's frail and young(not TOO young), though she's the same age as the trainer's Blaziken. And the trainer became ticked off over how she loses and didn't evolve though his Lairon as an Aron was strong when he wasn't in his evolved form. It depends.

I've written one, but I abandoned it. Although apparently our glorious don found it so good, she actually nominated it for the Fic Awards - twice, no less XD

Anyway, I've got an uh-mazing idea for an original fic (titled The Impossible Man), it's basically a near-future sci-fi saga inspired by The Matrix and slightly by Total Recall. But the one time I tried actually writing it, it sucked :/ But the idea is still awesome.

Yes. Go vote if you haven't already! That's an order from your mafia don!

I've actually already got that open in the very next tab. I guess that now you ordered me, I have to go do it. And 'mafia' really should be capitalised. Yes, I am a Grammar Nazi.

Meantimes, responding to Deadly's very interesting post...

Thank you, thank you / You're far too kind.
Because Numb/Encore FTW.

Looking forward to seeing what comes out of this~!

My dastardly wit gives you

Deadly's Prehistoric Challenge!

Yes, I did say dastardly ....

Prompt: "The world of Pokemon in prehistoric times!"

What, you want more detail? OK - I want your take on how the world of Pokemon would be in prehistoric times. Go ahead, write anything you want. An essay on how the natural discovery of fire was fast-forwarded by Charmander? Sure. An unlikely love story between Aerodactyl and Omastar interrupted by evil cavemen? Go ahead. A passage from Jurassic Park re-written with ancient, terrifyingly huge, mind-bogglingly alive dino-Pokemon? No, sorry, you can't have that one, that's my interpretation XD

I'm going to take Jax's suggestions, and say length can be anything you deem OK to submit. You can write a one-shot of 15 pages, a drabble under 1000 words, or even a special chapter in your regular fic that takes place out of its canon, so to speak whatever floats your boat!

This is not a contest, so no pressure: there's no first place, you're writing for the enjoyment of others. There is no deadline for submitting your entry or for saying you want to participate.
I'm going to be participating myself! Like I said, I'm going to rewrite a passage from the novel Jurassic Park, altered to Pokemonify it. You're more than welcome to copy my ideas, though. If you decide to participate, a post in this thread will suffice (although if you want to be particularly nice, you can VM me as well). You can also drop out if you have not enough time.

Depends if the Pokemon will evolve through level up, stones, etc. For the Pokemon that level up, I had done the "evolve during a battle" one or two times before. I can see a Pokemon evolve during training too if pushed hard enough. I don't think too much about this since I don't do evolutions often.

How many people have considered of making an original story here?

I've done several original stories before, but not anymore. I have an original story idea but if I were to post it I might do it at Ficitonpress as others said.

Funny story about this! People universally agree that the word "mafia" should be capitalized when referring to a specific criminal organization. (The Sicilian Mafia, the Japanese Mafia, the Russian Mafia, etc.) However! There's other definitions of the word, and in those definitions, mafia is not capitalized. So it ends up depending on how seriously we're taking ourselves. *le nod*

'Course, that also doesn't get into the question of whether or not "Mafia" would still be capitalized as an adjective referring to a general criminal organization instead of a noun referring to a specific one, but! (Some style books will tell you not to capitalize the word "mafia" when used as a general term for organized crime, so if you're using it as an adjective referring to general organized crime, you don't capitalize. Others will say this is bull when used as an adjective because who uses the word "mafia" as an adjective when they're not saying that the person is actually a member the Mafia?)

And also o' course, that's not the only thing problematic in that phrase. Namely considering I just used the male title instead of the female one, but knowing me, this is completely appropriate.

(I should totally write a guide to grammar on here. THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND. SO MANY THINGS.)

Deadly's Prehistoric Challenge!

Yes, I did say dastardly ....

Prompt: "The world of Pokemon in prehistoric times!"

What, you want more detail? OK - I want your take on how the world of Pokemon would be in prehistoric times. Go ahead, write anything you want. An essay on how the natural discovery of fire was fast-forwarded by Charmander? Sure. An unlikely love story between Aerodactyl and Omastar interrupted by evil cavemen? Go ahead. A passage from Jurassic Park re-written with ancient, terrifyingly huge, mind-bogglingly alive dino-Pokemon? No, sorry, you can't have that one, that's my interpretation XD

I'm going to take Jax's suggestions, and say length can be anything you deem OK to submit. You can write a one-shot of 15 pages, a drabble under 1000 words, or even a special chapter in your regular fic that takes place out of its canon, so to speak whatever floats your boat!

This is not a contest, so no pressure: there's no first place, you're writing for the enjoyment of others. There is no deadline for submitting your entry or for saying you want to participate.
I'm going to be participating myself! Like I said, I'm going to rewrite a passage from the novel Jurassic Park, altered to Pokemonify it. You're more than welcome to copy my ideas, though. If you decide to participate, a post in this thread will suffice (although if you want to be particularly nice, you can VM me as well). You can also drop out if you have not enough time.

All the best!

~Deadly

If I wasn't already participating in another challenge and goodness knows how many RL shenanigans, I would totally be on this.

Evolutions are not really crucial for your fiction, it honestly depends on the author if that is the path that they want to take. Evolutions do open up a new chapter and personality for the pokemon and trainer, which makes for more personality layers, so to speak. (like Ash's Charizard, if i remember correctly. i haven't seen that episode in years though.) I do not completely rely on evolutions though in the fic I am writing. My main character's signature pokemon is a Duskull, so I am going to keep it as a Duskull. Of course this makes problems considoring power, but it's what needs to stay. Like I said, it really depends on the author if they want evolution or not.

How many people have considered of making an original story here?

I considored the thought, but I really prefer not to post my original stories on Serebii. Fictionpress, like the other people said before me.

I wish i could join the Competition, but the two stories i have been writing has sucked the creativity from me. I'm all out at the moment..

...I feel like I should have a lot to say about this, given that "evolution" is half the title of my main fic. Not many evolutions actually happen in it, though; most of the time when evolution is brought up, it's regarding certain Pokémon decidedly not wanting to evolve (because when I began the fic I was an idiot who hated Sceptile to an unreasonable degree and that mindset ended up in a few of the characters, too, but shush). In my other fic, which is a Pokémon POV, the characters do evolve, usually after winning a battle rather than during it, and their newly-evolved form generally gives them a somewhat more mature outlook on life than they had before. Though whether that maturity comes from the change itself or due to inevitable factors regarding the species they now are (for example, being able to hunt for themselves when they previously just had to depend on adults for food), I'm not sure, and I imagine that's something that could vary depending on how a writer wants to tackle it.

Overall, since I've never written a badge quest trainer fic in which the purpose of evolutions is primarily for Pokémon to grow stronger, I guess I consider evolution to be essentially just a useful element in crafting a story. There's all sorts of potential in the concept of a character changing irreversibly from one form to another; the new form will have its good points, but it could have some bad ones too, and not necessarily just in terms of battling.

I approve of the challenge involving prehistoric Pokémon! I love fossil Pokémon and am all for encouraging more people to write about them. =D However, I probably won't participate in the challenge myself, partly because as much as I love fossil Pokémon, the thing that really interests me about them is not their natural lives in prehistoric times, but how they interact with trainers in the modern world. (This preference of mine may have something to do with the fact that it's essentially what my main fic is all about, and I've grown fond of the concept as I've written the fic.) Even in my other fic which is set in prehistoric times, the fact that it is is kind of incidental to the actual point of the story, so I was lazy and just threw in a bunch of modern-day Pokémon like Zigzagoon and Taillow to populate the supposedly-dinosaur-era-equivalent setting, because I couldn't be bothered to create multiple believable Fakemon species for the era when they weren't important to the story anyway. (I am the worst at worldbuilding.)

The other reason I probably won't be participating is because if I'm going to be doing any kind of writing any time soon, I should prioritise getting back to working on my main fic.

Which brings me onto a topic. There hasn't been a new one in a while, has there?

How do you handle getting back to writing a story after it's been on hiatus for a long time?

...because I am really struggling with this right now. I've reread recent chapters of the fic to remind myself just how much I love this story and really want to continue with it, but whenever I try and actually write some more of it, even though I know what's supposed to happen, it just doesn't come. It must be that, because I've written only extremely sporadically for the past ohgodfartoolong, my brain doesn't remember how to settle into a fiction-writing mood. Are there any ways to remedy this, or is this just a case of having to bash my head against this metaphorical brick wall until something breaks and the writing starts flowing again?

.: Evolution is a battle .:. Something has to lose :.LOST EVOLUTIONChapter 33: Inside has been posted.

Foregone ConclusionSpinoff/prequel/backstory/thingy to Lost Evolution, written for NaNoWriMo 2010